· Korea launched the standardization of LED lighting products in 2009.
· Korea has set a goal of upgrading the LED industry in Korea to a world-class and leading market.
· A total investment of 4 trillion won will be invested in LED research and development before 2012.
LED lighting is growing in size while it has problems such as price and reliability. In order to further promote the popularization of LED lighting and expand the industry, including safety standards and reliability standards, the standardization of LED lighting has begun to advance. In addition to the developed markets of Japan, the United States and Europe, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries and regions have also launched similar discussions. Among them, South Korea developed and implemented LED lighting standards in March 2009.
Following South Korea, the Taiwan region and mainland China have also begun to set standards, which are expected to be implemented as soon as possible in 2010. Now, Taiwan's "Ministry of Standards and Inspections of the Ministry of Economic Affairs" said that CNS (China National Standars) is setting standards for 35 kinds of LEDs, of which 12 LED lighting standards have been reviewed. The Working Group on Semiconductor Lighting Technology Standards of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has basically completed the formulation of seven LED lighting standards. Although the Japanese government and several industrial associations are also discussing the development of standards, they have not yet reached the state of development and are still under review. As a result, LED developed countries such as Japan actively explored the development of LED lighting standards, but in the end it was behind the situation in South Korea.
What is the standard content developed by South Korea? Why did Korea complete the standardization first? Through the investigation of the above problems, we have seen the attitude of South Korea to quickly capture business opportunities.
Part of the KS certification standard is related to LED lighting
In Korea, the certification standard for LED lighting products is “KS certification standard†(Fig. 1)1). To be precise, LED lighting product certification standards are part of the KS certification standard. The KS certification standard was originally introduced by the Technical Standards Institute of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea in 1963. The standards developed this time have been partially modified to add to the LED lighting. 2009 is actually the first revision of the KS certification standard in 46 years.
The KS certification standard is the abbreviation of Korean Industrial Standards. It is an industrial product standard established in accordance with the Industrial Standardization Law, and its purpose is to improve and maintain the quality of Korean industrial products (Note 1). The revision has increased or decreased the quality management objectives, adjusted the review criteria, and improved the certification system. The company has added 48 products (Note 2) to the cutting-edge industries such as LEDs, rechargeable batteries, organic ELs, and display components. The KS certification standard is divided into 17 categories, marked with A to X. LED lighting belongs to the category of motor (C).
Figure 1: KS Certification Standard Mark
LED lighting standards are included in the KS certification. Source: Korean Standards Association (KSA) Information
(Note 1) KS certification is equivalent to Japan's JIS standard and is classified as "arbitrary certification". In Japan, the standard marks printed on lighting fixtures are "JET logo" and "PSE logo", and the PSE logo is a mark stipulated by the Electrical Appliances Safety Law.
(Note 2) The biggest reason for this revision of KS certification is the improvement of Korean domestic standards and the strengthening of international competitiveness. Not only that, but also affected by the recent Electrical and Electronic Product Recovery Act and the WEEE Directive, South Korea also hopes to upgrade the current environmental standards to international standards.
When developing LED lighting standards, the discussion is generally mostly about security and performance. In the KS certification standard, “security requirements†and “performance requirements†are in the same standard. In addition to JIS C 8154 "General Lighting LED Modules - Safety Performance Indicators", JIS C 8156 "General Lighting Bulb-Type LED Lamps - Safety Performance Indicators" and JIS C 8155 "General Lighting LED Modules" The "performance" two JIS standard proposals are under discussion, and the security performance indicators and performance are independent. It can be seen that the KS certification standard categorizes security and performance as the same standard. Because of this, the IEC has questioned the practice of attribution of safety and performance to the same standard. Moreover, some members of the meeting also put forward the opinions that "the completion degree of the KS certification standard is low and not practical". It can be said that there are still problems in the LED lighting standards in Korea.
Three-stage import standard
According to the plan, the LED lighting project of KS certification standard will be formulated and implemented in stages, gradually covering various LED lighting fixtures. First, the first phase was the development of three standards on March 1, 2009. "KS C 7651" for converter built-in LED lamps (for replacing incandescent bulbs with built-in appliances), "KS C 7652" for converter external LED lamps (for replacing halogen lamps), for embedded type "KS C 7653" (Table 1) (Note 3) for LED lighting equipment. Emergency lights are also initially scheduled to be included. However, for such appliances, Korean fire prevention and disaster prevention institutes, fire industry technical institutes, firefighting appliance associations and other related groups are still under discussion (Note 4).
The standard for embedded lighting fixtures (KS C 7653) is based on the size of compact fluorescent lamps and halogen lamps currently in use, ensuring form and size compatibility.
The light efficiency of the three lamps is 5lm lower than the high-efficiency mechanical material certification standard.
(Note 3) Regarding KS C 7653, due to the similarity to the fixed-type LED lighting fixture standard of KS C 7655, these two standards are incorporated into the implementation of KS C 7653 "embedded and fixed LED lighting fixtures". In addition, the combined standards will be implemented from July 1, 2009. Therefore, the LED module power converter specified in KS C 7660 was also implemented as the KS C 7655 "LED Module Power Supply Converter".